Posts Tagged ‘Phil Robertson’

Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi delivers a speech to the nation over Rakhine and Rohingya situation, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar September 19, 2017. REUTERS – Soe Zeya Tun

NAYPYITAW (Reuters) – Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday gave her first address to the nation since attacks by Rohingya Muslim insurgents on Aug. 25 sparked a military response that has forced more than 410,000 Rohingya into neighboring Bangladesh.

Suu Kyi condemned human rights violations and said anyone responsible would face the law but she did not address U.N. accusations that the military campaign in Rakhine state was “textbook” ethnic cleansing.

Here are some reactions to her speech from diplomats, aid agency officials, human rights groups and others:

JAMES GOMEZ, Amnesty International regional director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

“Aung San Suu Kyi today demonstrated that she and her government are still burying their heads in the sand over the horrors unfolding in Rakhine State.”

PHIL ROBERTSON, Human Rights Watch deputy director, Asia Division.

In response to Suu Kyi’s statement that army clearance operations have ceased since Sept. 5 – “If that is true, then who is burning all the villages we’ve seen in the past two weeks?”

TIN MAUNG SWE, secretary of the Rakhine State government

He praised Suu Kyi for her “transparency” but was not optimistic about her pledge to promote harmony between Muslims and the largely Buddhist ethnic Rakhine communities in the state.

“The situation is ready to explode. It just needs a single spark.”

SEIN WIN, Myanmar defense minister

“We will protect the ones who are in line with the law … There are still many Muslim villages. We are taking good care of them,” he said, as he arrived for Suu Kyi’s speech.

PAUL EDWARDS, UNICEF deputy representative in Myanmar

“We have to take at face value what she said about there being no further military operation since Sept 5. But of course none of us really know what’s happening there if we’re not there.”

MARZUKI DARUSMAN, chair of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar

“Two main issues emerge … the categorical readiness of the government of Myanmar to receive back returnees at any time on the basis of a procedure that will have to be discussed at some point. And secondly, the readiness of the government to undertake to be globally scrutinized by the international community. These two points bode well.”

HONG LIANG, Chinese ambassador to Myanmar

“China’s position is very clear. We support the Myanmar government’s effort to restore the peace and stability in Rakhine.”

NIKOLAY A. LISTOPADOV, Russian ambassador to Myanmar

“There are not reliable proofs, evidence to make such a condemnation, genocide and ethnic cleansing, no evidence.”

ANDREW KIRKWOOD, United Nations Office for Project Services director and representative in Myanmar

He welcomed Suu Kyi’s announcement that diplomats could travel to Rakhine state to see the situation for themselves.

“I think that that is a positive statement and we wait to see what follow-up there is.”

When US PresidentDonald Trump met Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in May, he sent a clear message: by patting the backs of authoritarian leaders, the US is complicit in Vietnam’s rights abuses.

Trump is no stranger to brushing shoulders with autocratic leaders. Allegations of cosying up to Russian President Vladimir Putin aside, he has praised Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Egyptian leader Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

But Trump extending hands to Vietnam’s leader is perhaps unique given the two countries’ past animosity, and particularly since Hanoi’s crackdown on opposition voices, seen by many as its toughest in years.

A girl walks past a poster promoting Vietnam’s 14th National Assembly election in Hanoi last year. The ruling party has launched a crackdown on dissenting voices as the US has relaxed its push for improved human rights in the country. Photo: Reuters

Vietnam’s leaders – some of the most authoritarian in Southeast Asia – are determined to silence all forms of dissent that cause people to question the one-party state.

Last month, President Tran Dai Quang called for tougher internet controls on such voices and to “prevent news sites and blogs with bad and dangerous content”. Two weeks ago, authorities in Thai Binh province arrested a member of the online advocacy group, the Brotherhood for Democracy, for “subversion” in relation to his involvement in a land dispute.

The case highlighted Vietnam’s intolerance for such dissent and the political elite have shown they will cling to power by any means – harassing activists and bloggers, extracting confessions through intimidation, physical assault and imprisonment are often reported. So far this year, Vietnamese authorities have reportedly arrested 15 people for anti-state actions.

“By inviting Vietnam’s Prime Minister to the White House and then failing to raise any human rights issues, President Trump basically gave Hanoi the green light to initiate a renewed crackdown on rights activists,” said Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division. “Trump’s change in Vietnam policy amounted to throwing out the window the human rights concerns of the Obama administration, which had been one of Vietnam’s strongest critics.”

Robertson said he was not surprised to see Vietnam taking advantage of Trump’s apathy – and lack of US criticism – to ramp up its crackdown and hit prominent dissidents with a slew of long prison sentences.

“It looks like Vietnam is taking advantage of this current situation to try and set the human rights situation back to an earlier, more repressive past.”

US President Barack Obama gestures at Vietnam’s President Tran Dai Quang in Hanoi. The former US leader was more critical of the Southeast Asian nation’s human rights abuses, than the current US President Donald Trump. Photo: Reuters

But alleviating US pressure on Vietnam did not start with Trump. Though the Obama administration was known for pushing governments to improve their human rights situations, the former US leader last year lifted a long-standing arms embargo on Vietnam, which critics warned could remove incentives for the Southeast Asian nation to improve its human rights situation.

[TRUMP’S] PRIMARY INTEREST IS IN STRIKING TRADE DEALS WHICH ARE MORE BENEFICIAL TO THE US WITH FOREIGN PARTNERS

But under the Trump administration, Vietnam – and many other authoritarian states – have even less to worry about in terms of US wrist-slapping. The US president has not been shy in his praise of many hardline leaders around the world and has often touted a foreign policy that seeks to move away from the liberal, human rights-focused agenda of past presidents. Washington’s retreat from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which included rules aimed at promoting worker’s rights, left Vietnam with even fewer reasons to worry about international opinion.

Oliver Turner, an international relations lecturer from the University of Edinburgh, said a fundamental aspect of Trump’s administration was its tunnel vision.

“[Trump’s] primary interest is in striking trade deals which are more beneficial to the US with foreign partners, and it won’t be a surprise to see his administration negotiate these deals in the absence of concern for their records on human rights,” he said.

Turner said China’s growing presence and influence in Southeast Asia was also an critical factor, as Beijing surfaces as an attractive alternative to the US by offering funding without the human rights-oriented conditions that often came with US aid. But Vietnam and China have historical animosity, leaving Vietnam as one of Washington’s few remaining allies in the region.

“I also think that with the Philippines, and to a lesser extent Thailand in particular, shifting their diplomatic allegiances towards China, relations with Vietnam will probably become more of a priority for Washington, making a future appeasement of human rights abuses more likely,” he said.

Despite having its own history of rights abuses in Southeast Asia – including an illegal war in Laos, wanton bombing in Vietnam and Cambodia and the backing of a genocidal regime in Indonesia – the US can still institute positive change in the region. Capable of applying concerted pressure on human rights issues, most dictators have to at least sit up and appear to listen to the US, Robertson said.

But such a prospect – US influence as a force for good in the region – may be no more than a pipe dream.

“The US has a role to play in curbing human rights abuses in Vietnam, most prominently through economic diplomacy and tying trade to the issue of human rights … this seems unlikely over the next four years,” Turner said.

“Washington could also rally like-minded allies in Asean [The Association of Southeast Asian Nations] to exert pressure on Vietnam, but Trump’s unilateralist approach to global affairs will likely have little time for, or faith in, such institutions.”

As long as Trump is in office – and is focused on threats like a nuclear-armed North Korea and domestic politics – residents of Southeast Asia may have to rely on themselves to promote free speech and other freedoms.

“Trump’s supporters will not measure his success in terms of upholding human rights, and Trump knows that, so it isn’t a priority for him,” Turner said.

“I think on the issue of human rights, it will increasingly be up to the Asean community to police itself.”

UN chief Antonio Guterres warned Friday of a looming humanitarian catastrophe in western Myanmar and urged security forces to show restraint after hundreds were reported dead in communal violence and thousands continued to flee.

It is the bloodiest chapter yet in a bitter five-year crisis that has torn apart Rakhine state along ethnic and religious lines, displaced the region’s Rohingya community in huge numbers and heaped international condemnation on Myanmar’s army and the government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Aung San Suu Kyi

Around 400 people — most of them Rohingya Muslims — have died in the violence, according to the army chief’s office Friday, while the UN says 38,000 have sought refuge across the border in Bangladesh.

A further 20,000 Rohingya have massed along the Bangladeshi frontier, barred from entering the South Asian country, while scores of desperate people have drowned attempting to cross the Naf, a border river, in makeshift boats.

Reports of massacres and the systematic torching of villages by security forces — as well as by militants — have further amplified tensions, raising fears that violence in Rakhine is spinning out of control.

“The secretary-general is deeply concerned by the reports of excesses during the security operations conducted by Myanmar’s security forces in Rakhine State and urges restraint and calm to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe,” said a UN spokesman.

Guterres recalled that it was the government’s responsibility to provide security and allow aid agencies to reach those in need.

The army chief’s office on Friday gave the updated death toll, sketching out the details of an insurgency that has escalated sharply.

“Until August 30, a large number of terrorists carried out 52 waves of attacks on security forces…. in those attacks, 370 bodies of terrorists were found and nine others captured alive,” a statement posted on Facebook said.

Fifteen security forces and 14 civilians have also died in eight days of fighting, it added.

Erdogan says ‘genocide’

Rakhine has been the crucible of religious violence since 2012, when riots erupted killing scores of Rohingya and forcing tens of thousands of people — the majority from the Muslim minority — into displacement camps.

Rights groups, who believe the true death toll is much higher, allege massacres of Rohingya in remote villages led by Myanmar security forces and ethnic Rakhine Buddhist mobs.

The Rohingya are reviled in Myanmar, where the roughly one million-strong community are accused of being illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Fortify Rights, an NGO with a focus on Myanmar, said eyewitnesses alleged mobs shot and hacked down Rohingya villagers — including children — in a five-hour “killing spree” in the village of Chut Pyin in Rathedaung township on Sunday afternoon.

The allegations could not be independently verified by AFP as the area is off-limits to reporters.

Myanmar’s Information Committee appeared earlier this week to confirm a major security operation took place around the village on Sunday afternoon as a patrol clashed with scores of Rohingya militants.

But in a complex situation, further muddied by the swirl of claims and denials by both sides, more accounts emerged accusing Myanmar forces of killings and widespread abuse.

A 23-year-old Rohingya woman from Kyet Yoe Pyin said she had witnessed soldiers and Buddhist mobs rape and kill Muslims in her village over the weekend.

“They mercilessly slaughtered men, women and children,” she told AFP by telephone from Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh where she has fled. The claims could not be verified by AFP.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday accused Myanmar of “genocide” against the Rohingya in a speech in Istanbul during the Islamic Eid al-Adha feast.

Erdogan said he would bring up the issue at the next UN General Assembly in New York later this month, adding that he had already talked to Guterres and other Muslim leaders.

Bodies in the water

Desperate to reach Bangladesh, thousands of Rohingya have taken to boats — or clung to flotsam — in an effort to cross the Naf river which separates the two countries. But others died trying.

Eighteen bodies washed ashore in Bangladesh on Friday, according to Bangladeshi border officials, lifting the toll over the last two days to 41.

More than 400 Hindus from Rakhine have also crossed into Bangladesh, after armed men attacked their village, killing and looting.

It is the first time in Rakhine’s bitter and bloody crisis that Hindus have fled — a sign violence is billowing out.

Thousands of ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and other local ethnic groups have also been displaced — the apparent targets of militants who are fighting under the banner of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA).

The ARSA emerged as a force in October last year when their attacks killed Myanmar border police, prompting a crackdown by security forces.

The United States on Thursday urged the military to protect civilians, while Yanghee Lee, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, said the “worsening cycle of violence” was “of grave concern”.

BANGKOK — The number of North Koreans slipping illegally into Thailand has surged in recent months, according to immigration bureau officials, as tensions mount on the Korean peninsula because of Pyongyang’s weapons programs.

Thailand is on a popular transit route for North Koreans defecting from the impoverished communist state. Hundreds flee each year to China and make it to Thailand after an overland journey, from where they are usually sent on to South Korea.

In 2016, there were 535 North Korean arrivals in Thailand, but the first six months of this year saw 385 arrivals, according to data from Thailand’s immigration bureau seen by Reuters, and more are arriving each week.

“An average of 20 to 30 North Koreans arrive each week now in northern Thailand alone,” said an immigration official who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.

North Koreans arrested for illegal entry into Thailand — But many enter legally

The surge has come despite tighter controls by North Korea on its border with China. It coincides with rising tensions on the Korean peninsula over Pyongyang’s stepped up nuclear and missile tests and warnings by the United States that it was losing patience with the isolated state.

However, Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights, a Seoul-based NGO, said the number of North Korean defectors coming to South Korea had not increased this year, implying that those coming through Thailand could be making up a higher proportion of the total.

The South’s Unification Ministry said 593 North Korean defectors had come to the South in the first six months, against 1,418 last year and 1,275 in 2015.

Most North Koreans enter Thailand at its northernmost tip, near the Golden Triangle, from neighboring Laos, the Thai immigration officials said, but new routes had also emerged further south.

“We have seen many North Koreans entering the country in several northeastern provinces along the Mekong River in the last few years,” said Captain Chonlathai Rattanaruang, a commander of the Mekong River Navy patrol.

Another officer confirmed the trend. He told Reuters that groups of North Koreans have been entering Thailand through northeastern provinces bordering Laos including Nong Khai and Nakhon Phanom, where the Mekong forms the international frontier.

UNOFFICIAL UNDERSTANDING

Officially, Thailand treats North Koreans who enter the country as illegal migrants rather than refugees.

Thailand has not signed the 1951 Geneva Convention on Refugees and has no specific law on refugees.

Unofficially, arrangements are often made between Thai authorities, the South Korean government, and defectors on the ground.

“The North Koreans come to Thailand to get arrested so they will get an asylum to South Korea,” said Roongroj Tannawut, a district official of Chiang Khong district near the Golden Triangle.

North Korean defectors who enter Thailand are arrested and prosecuted for illegal entry.

They are then transferred to an immigration detention center in Bangkok before being deported, usually to South Korea.

“Since the South Korean constitution recognizes all Koreans as its citizens, it is possible for Thailand to recognize South Korea as a legitimate destination to deport North Koreans,” Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division, told Reuters.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees rarely processes North Korean defectors in Thailand because of the arrangement between Thailand and South Korea.

“People fleeing North Korea don’t usually approach UNHCR offices as they have other ways of seeking safety,” Vivian Tan, spokeswoman for UNHCR Asia, told Reuters.

The South Korean Embassy in Bangkok declined to comment on their role when contacted.

HANOI (Reuters) – A court in Vietnam jailed a prominent dissident for nine years and gave her five years of probation for spreading propaganda against the state, her lawyer said on Tuesday, in what appeared to be the Communist-ruled country’s latest crackdown on critics.

Despite sweeping reforms to its economy and growing openness to social change, including gay, lesbian and transgender rights, Vietnam’s Communist Party retains tight media censorship and does not tolerate criticism.

Blogger Tran Thi Nga was found guilty at a one-day trial in the northern province of Ha Nam, six months after being arrested for posting the offending material on the internet, lawyer Ha Huy Son said.

Trần Thị Nga

“This is an unfair verdict,” he said. “Nga is not guilty as stated by the court.”

The charges against Nga are “bogus”, said New York-based Human Rights Watch.

“The Vietnamese government consistently goes to extremes to silence its critics, targeting activists like Tran Thi Nga with bogus charges that carry a long prison sentence, and subjecting their families to harassment and abuse,” its deputy Asia director, Phil Robertson, said in a statement.

Separately, police on Monday arrested a prominent dissident they have accused of conducting activities aimed at overthrowing the government.

The arrest of Le Dinh Luong, 51, followed his “regular activities with the aim to overthrow the authority and complicate local security,” police in the central province of Nghe An said on their news website, but did not elaborate.

It was not possible to contact Luong and it was not known if he had legal representation.

Nga’s verdict and Luong’s arrest come just a month after a court jailed prominent blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, known as “Me Nam”, or Mother Mushroom, for 10 years for publishing propaganda against the state.

Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh

Several dissidents and bloggers voiced support online for both Nga and Luong. With information tightly controlled by the government, some critics take to web blogs to air grievances and social media sites, including Facebook, are hugely popular.

Luong and Quynh had both spoken out against a subsidiary of Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics Corp that caused one of Vietnam’s biggest environmental disasters in April.

HANOI, Vietnam — A Vietnamese court was holding a trial Tuesday of a woman who posted articles and videos online that were described as anti-state propaganda.

The trial of Tran Thi Nga, 40, was expected to last a day, said a court official in the northern province of Ha Nam who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing policy.

Trần Thị Nga

State media say Nga was arrested in January while she was accessing the internet to post a number of video clips and articles that oppose the state.

Human Rights Watch has called for her immediate release.

“The Vietnamese government consistently goes to extremes to silence its critics, targeting activists like Tran Thi Nga with bogus charges that carry a long prison sentence, and subjecting their families to harassment and abuse,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, in a statement Monday.

On Monday, the Nghe An province police said on its website it had arrested Le Dinh Luong, 51, who “often had acts that aim at overthrowing the people’s government and causing security and public order disturbances” in the central province.

Le Dinh Luong

Nga’s trial in Ha Nam some 60 kilometers south of Hanoi comes a month after a court in the south-central province of Khanh Hoa sentenced prominent blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh to 10 years in prison for conducting anti-state propaganda.

Vietnam opened up the country to foreign trade and investment three decades ago and has maintained one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia, but the Communist-ruled government has almost no tolerance to dissent.

International human rights groups and some Western governments often criticize Vietnam for jailing people for peacefully expressing their views, but Hanoi says only law-breakers are punished.

Geneva- Paris, July 21, 2017 – Vietnamese authorities must drop all charges against labour and land rights defender Tran Thi Nga and immediately release her, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (an FIDH-OMCT partnership) and the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) urged today.Tran Thi Nga’s trial is scheduled for July 25-26, 2017 at the People’s Court in Ha Nam Province. She has been charged under Article 88 of the Criminal Code (“spreading propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam”). If convicted, she could face up to 20 years in jail.“The harassment, arbitrary arrest, and trial of Tran Thi Nga follow a familiar pattern of repression that will inevitably continue unless Hanoi enacts significant institutional and legislative reforms, including the amendment of the country’s numerous repressive laws,” said FIDH President Dimitris Christopoulos.

Tran Thi Nga was arrested on January 21, 2017 at her home in Phu Ly, Ha Nam Province, after the police searched her house and confiscated several of her personal belongings. On the same day, Tran Thi Nga’s partner Luong Dan Ly, a pro-democracy activist and blogger, was also arrested. He was released the following day.

Police accused Tran Thi Nga of using the Internet “to spread some propaganda videos and writings that are against the Government of the Social Republic of Vietnam”.

“We strongly condemn the prosecution of Tran Thi Nga, which illustrates once more the Vietnamese Government’s relentless efforts to intimidate and silence human rights defenders for their legitimate human rights activities. Vietnam must immediately and unconditionally free Tran Thi Nga and all other jailed human rights defenders,” said OMCT Secretary General Gerald Staberock.

Tran Thi Nga has suffered repeated intimidation, harassment, detention, interrogation, and physical assaults by security agents because of her human rights activities. In May 2014, a group of five men assaulted her with iron rods, breaking her arm and leg. In the days prior to her arrest in January 2017, Tran Thi Nga was subjected to increased police intimidation and harassment, including surveillance of her home and the use of physical force to keep her from leaving her house. Police also refused to allow a neighbour to take her two young sons to the city to buy them food.

“The result of Tran Thi Nga’s trial is a foregone conclusion and it certainly won’t be the last conviction of a human rights defender by Vietnam’s kangaroo courts. Without renewed international pressure, Hanoi’s crackdown on human rights defenders will continue unabated,” said VCHR President Vo Van Ai.

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (the Observatory) was created in 1997 by FIDH and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT). The objective of this program is to prevent or remedy situations of repression against human rights defenders. FIDH and OMCT are both members of ProtectDefenders.eu, the European Union Human Rights Defenders Mechanism implemented by international civil society.

SEOUL — Eight North Korean defectors in China face involuntary repatriation after being detained by Chinese police last month, the Human Rights Watch group and a pastor who have been assisting them said on Monday.

North Korea-China border

Human Rights Watch said Chinese government authorities detained the eight North Koreans in mid-March during what appeared to be a random road check in northeastern China.

The detention of North Korean defectors in China comes as U.S. President Donald Trump has pressured China to do more to rein in Pyongyang amid heightened tension over its nuclear and missile programs.

“By now, there are plenty of survivor accounts that reveal (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un’s administration is routinely persecuting those who are forced back to North Korea after departing illegally, and subjecting them to torture, sexual violence, forced labor – and even worse,” Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement on Monday.

Robertson called on China not to deport the would-be defectors.

The United Nations has said China is required under international law not to return defectors to North Korea, where they could face persecution, torture and possibly death.

China says North Korean defectors are illegal migrants who flee their country for economic reasons. North Korea calls them criminals and describes those who try to bring them to South Korea as kidnappers.

The eight North Koreans were in the city of Shenyang, where traffic police stopped their vehicle and took them to a police station because they did not have valid documentation, Human Rights Watch said.

A Christian pastor helping North Korean defectors in China and who asked to be identified by the pseudonym Stephan Kim, said they had sent him a video clip asking U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping for help.

“President Trump and Chinese President, please save us. If we go back to North Korea we will be dead, ” said a female North Korean, whose face was blurred for security reasons.

A man can be seen riding a bicycle on the North Korean side or the China-North Korea border at Dandong in Liaoning.Credit Cancan Chu/Getty Images

Another woman sitting next to her put her hands together and pleaded for help.

Scores of North Koreans attempt to flee their country every year, often first crossing into China and then making their way to Southeast Asia. Some countries in the region have worked with South Korea to send them to South Korea.

About 30,000 have made their way to South Korea, many with the help of South Korean human rights groups, religious organizations or commercial brokers.

(Bangkok) – Malaysia’s human rights situation markedly deteriorated in 2016, with increased arrests of government critics, expanded restrictions on peaceful assembly, and continued impunity for police abuses, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2017.

In the 687-page World Report, its 27th edition, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in more than 90 countries. In his introductory essay, Executive Director Kenneth Roth writes that a new generation of authoritarian populists seeks to overturn the concept of human rights protections, treating rights as an impediment to the majority will. For those who feel left behind by the global economy and increasingly fear violent crime, civil society groups, the media, and the public have key roles to play in reaffirming the values on which rights-respecting democracy has been built.

“The Malaysian government has responded to corruption allegations by throwing respect for rights out the window,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director. “By bringing a slew of prosecutions against those expressing dissenting views or peacefully protesting, the government is seriously undermining democratic institutions and the rights of all Malaysian citizens.”

Throughout 2016, Malaysian authorities used the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) and the Sedition Act to arrest those criticizing the administration of Prime Minister Najib Razak, commenting on the government’s handling of the 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) corruption scandal, or making comments on social media deemed “insulting” to Najib or to Malaysia’s royalty.

The government also used the CMA to suspend newspapers and block websites reporting on the 1MDB scandal, and has repeatedly arrested and prosecuted those involved in peaceful protests. In November, the authorities raided the offices of online news portal Malaysiakini and subsequently charged its chief executive officer, Premesh Chandran, and editor-in-chief, Steven Gan, with violating the CMA by uploading video of a press conference during which a former member of the ruling coalition called for the resignation of the attorney general.

The Malaysian government has also used the draconian Official Secrets Act to shield the Auditor General’s report on the 1MDB scandal – a matter of great public interest in Malaysia – from public view. In November, Rafizi Ramli, the vice president of opposition Parti Keadilan Rakyat, was sentenced to 18 months in prison under the act for allegedly disclosing information from that report.

The Malaysian government should step back from its repressive course, bring its laws into line with international standards, and start respecting fully the rights of everyone in Malaysia.

Phil Robertson

Deputy Asia Director

Civil society groups organized under the Bersih (meaning “clean” in Malay language) coalition continued to demand clean and fair elections in 2018 when the next national poll must take place by, and other human rights and governance reforms. These groups mounted a major public rally, Bersih 5, on November 19. The day before the protest, authorities detained Bersih chairperson Maria Chin Abdullah, then detained her under the Security Offenses (Special Measures) Act, a draconian anti-terrorism law that permits detention without charge.

In August, the sweeping National Security Council law came into force, giving the prime minister the authority to declare security areas within which restraints on police power are suspended. Police torture of suspects in custody and excessive use of force remained serious problems, as did lack of accountability for such offenses. More than a thousand people are estimated to be on death row for various crimes and, although the Malaysian government has repeatedly said that it is considering amending the law to charge the mandatory death penalty provisions, it has yet to do so.

More than 150,000 refugees and asylum seekers, the vast majority of whom come from Burma, have no legal status in Malaysia and are unable to work, travel, or enroll in government schools. The lack of status leaves them highly vulnerable to exploitation.

“The downward slide in rights protections that started after the 2013 election accelerated during the past year as the number of tough questions increased about Prime Minister Najib’s alleged involvement in 1MDB scandal,” said Robertson. “The Malaysian government should step back from its repressive course, bring its laws into line with international standards, and start respecting fully the rights of everyone in Malaysia.”

Former opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is in prison after he was convicted of sodomising his former aide. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, February 9, 2016. US President Barack Obama must urge Malaysian counterpart Datuk Seri Najib Razak to release Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim from prison and drop all politically motivated charges, says a global human rights body ahead of the US-Asean Summit.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Najib’s invitation to the summit, which will be held in the US in five days, had provoked outrage among Malaysian activists.

“Obama should not conduct business as usual at the US-Asean summit with Najib,” said Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, in a press release to commemorate the first anniversary of Anwar’s imprisonment.

“It would be a betrayal of the people of Malaysia if Obama does not publicly call for Anwar’s release, and the dismissal of politically motivated charges for sedition and other crimes that so many activists in Malaysia face today.” HRW said Putrajaya should “unconditionally release” Anwar because his incarceration was on “politically motivated charges”. Robertson said confidence in the Malaysian justice system eroded each day the former opposition leader was kept behind bars.

“Anwar’s conviction and imprisonment removed a major political threat to the government of Najib,” said Robertson. HRW said Putrajaya should also ensure the former opposition leader had access to appropriate medical services while imprisoned and that it facilitated necessary overseas travel to treat his ailments.

The Federal Court last year upheld a Court of Appeal verdict that Anwar was guilty of sodomising his aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, and sentenced him to five years in prison. The US had said it was “deeply disappointed and concerned” by the outcome of the trial. – February 9, 2016.

PHUKET: The resignation of a senior human trafficking investigator today is likely to provoke international questioning about whether Thailand intends to end the evil trade in people or cover it up all over again.

Major General Paween Pongsirin said the five-month police probe was wound up and his investigation unit disbanded with more arrests yet to be made and trafficking networks unbroken.

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The main reason he quit today is because acceptance of his new appointment as deputy commander of Yala province in Thailand’s Deep South would expose him to revenge by trafficking network members who are still free.

Scores of arrests have been made since May by Major General Paween’s team – including Army and Navy Officers, police and powerful local politicians.

But Major General Paween said: ”We were only given five months. The job is not finished yet.”

He alleges there are still senior people in uniform who have not been brought to book for their roles in the trade in people that flourished for years through Thailand until May, when the mass graves of Rohingya and Bangladeshis were discovered in secret jungle camps along the Thai-Malaysia border.

Why Thailand’s probe into human trafficking was wound up with the chief investigator insisting arrests still had to be made is a question the Prime Minister and other senior government officials are likely to be asked many times before US State Department officials consider whether to lift the country from Tier 3 of its Trafficking in Persons ranking, the lowest level, next year.

With the disbanding of the trafficking investigation unit, the pregnant wife of one key Rohingya witness against several important suspects has been left to fend for herself without any protection or aid.

Major General Paween said today that ending human trafficking in Thailand was made a priority by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha: ”I worked hard for the benefit of the country and I arrested some military officers and their [alleged] networks.”

Prayuth Chan Ocha. AP photo

Yala is a province where Major General Paween knows traffickers are still free so he has decided to reject his new appointment and resign instead after a long career as a highly-regarded honest policeman.

”This is very sad but I have no choice,” he said. ”My first priority is to protect my life and the lives of my family.”

For years, human trafficking of stateless Rohingya from Myanmar (Burma) and later neighboring Bangladeshis grew into a multi-billion baht industry through Thailand with very few arrests and huge amounts of money changing hands.

Onlookers fear that with so many senior people in the networks still free, the hideous process is likely to resume at any moment – but with greater effort going into covering it up.

Thailand’s grassroots effort to educate local officials and stop human trafficking from now on has not been matched by a desire to expose and arrest all those in uniform who were previously part of the trade in people.

Phil Robertson, Deputy Director, Asia Division, Human Rights Watch, said: ”Thailand’s serious human trafficking problem is further from being solved today with the loss of Major General Paween, who did an exemplary job in investigating the human trafficking gangs involved in perpetuating the misery of the Rohingya, and prosecuting anyone involved, no matter how high their rank or important their connections.

”Transferring efficient and highly committed police in a punitive way, and leaving witnesses unprotected is precisely the way that Thailand elites have historically allowed human rights related prosecutions to unravel.

”The US government and the international community need to be asking some hard questions about this case to those in charge of .

”Will these prosecutions of influential persons in the Rohingya trafficking cases go the same way that so many other trafficking prosecutions have gone in the past – let the accused play for time, look the other way as witnesses are intimidated or bought off, and then throw hands up in the air and look blameless when the prosecution cases implode at the court, allowing traffickers to walk free?

”It’s time for action to be taken now to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Major General Paween, a career-long police officer now aged 57, will leave the force in 30 days unless authorities rescind the Yala appointment or hasten his resignation.

Thousands more Rohingya are expected to take to the sea in search of sanctuary after tomorrow’s national election in Myanmar.

Declaration of Interest

Puketwan journalists Alan Morison and Chutima Sidasathian have to wait until November 30 for the possibility of a court verdict appeal by the Phuket Prosecutor’s office to end. On September 1 a judge dismissed all criminal defamation and computer crimes charges against the reporters.

The case was brought by the Royal Thai Navy over Rohingya trafficking allegations originally published by Reuters news agency.

LISTEN The Rohingya Solution
A tragedy almost beyond words has been unfolding in Thailand, where a human smuggling network is thriving with the full knowledge of some corrupt law enforcement officers. Alan Morison ofPhuketwan talks to Australia’s AM program.http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2015/s4231108.htm